Barry good points. I would add that a big problem is that GW has never been a sports-driven school. I've been attending games since 1965 and attendance has been a constant problem (football was even worse).Things picked up a bit during the Jarvis and Lonergan years but, still, sellouts were an exception. Attendance will pick up when the league season starts, but don't expect a tremendous surge. I've been sayin recently that, if the team wins big, they will come. Upon reflection, I'm not so sure. When the team is really successful in a particular season, more students with GW sweatshirts will appear, but most of the time I see students wearing shirts emblazed with many colleges other than GW as they walk around campus. Games being shown on streaming services certainly also depresses attendance plus the lack of radio, tv, and newspaper coverage.  That said, the school should do everything suggested here to attract new fans, but don't expect a sea change whatever is done.  

GW73 wrote:

Interesting discussion, lots of good ideas, but does anyone know what GW is doing to market men's basketball?  It would be nice if we could know what the school is doing. Maybe passionate supporters on this board could even support those efforts. 

Could not agree more GW73.  It does feel like this program is turning a corner (this is the best I have felt about a GW team since the NIT Championship) and CC is really out there meeting students, making media appearances, and obviously spearheading some excellent recruiting and game planning.  It really would be nice to learn more about what the school is doing to attract more fans.  On the one hand, my sense is that a "wait and see" approach towards spending real dollars is under way, as in win first and then financial support will be afforded.  On the other hand, a number of things mentioned here don't cost a lot of money (some don't cost any money...just time). 

It's time for this program to stop licking its wounds and feeling like a neglected stepchild.  We are seeing a resurgence on the court, and we should be experiencing some real growth in paid attendance.  So, what exactly is being done?
 

It’s bad, but I think if OOC scheduling is part of it, it’s not a big part. I don’t think random DC people will go if there were slightly better teams. I’d like to improve it of course but I don’t think that solves it

I would think the last sellout was maybe a game against Dayton or VCU.  Could also be the Florida NIT game which came later in the same season as UVA (albeit that was a gift from Florida because they were renovating their arena).

The days when we could get a P6 team to come to the Smith Center are basically over.  Schools schedule to the NET and an away game against GW is at best a Quad 2 game for the foreseeable future (likely Q3 if we're being honest).  There isn't any reason why you go on the road to play an OOC Q3 game anymore. Only chance is maybe we luck out and a P6 school gets a DMV kid who wants to play a game close to home like Miami did with Chris Lykes in 2017.

Here's Dayton's home schedule this year (they sold out every game):
SIU Evansville
Youngstown State
Grambling State
UNLV (cancelled)
Troy
Oakland
Longwood

Dayton and VCU fans seem to show up regardless of who's playing, so blaming a weak OOC schedule on lack of attendance only reinforces the fact that our own local alumni, especially alumni with young kids, are culprit #1.  If you don't want to compare us to Dayton/VCU, look at Davidson which is significantly smaller than GW and basically double our attendance.

If we just want butts in seats, regardless of who they're rooting for, we need to schedule opponents that have strong alumni bases in the DMV area.

Schools off the top of my head that we could reasonably schedule a home game with:
Delaware
James Madison
Princeton
Harvard
Penn

Last edited by GW0509 (1/08/2024 8:19 am)

Dayton and VCU are bad examples, because if you are sports fan, what else are you going to watch in Dayton or Richmond.  Its not like they have to compete against the Wizards, Capitols, or the myriad of other cultural opportunities that exist here but not in those smaller cities.  Also, there is the winning factor.  Winning cures all, and those programs have been winning for decades.  I think I saw that VCU hasn't had a losing season in 20 years.  Fans know that they are going to see a decent product when they go to those games.  There hasn't been a guarantee of that here since ML was fired, and that was even debatable.  You really have to go back to Hobbs, but probably Jarvis.  I think with consistent winning, you will see a return of fans and not amount of marketing will probably change that.

GW0509 wrote:

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Surprised nobody has mentioned the home schedule as a factor in the low attendance.  Not sure how this is fixable, but people will also go to a sporting event to see the visiting team play, and at least this season, we have had no opponants worth the price of admission.

Yeah I don't think it's fixable.  Even the A10's best teams are struggling to schedule home games like GW could do under the Lonergan years.

Dayton: UNLV (and it was cancelled)
VCU: Memphis, Temple
SLU: Utah State
Duquesne: Princeton

That's pretty much it.  A10 fans better get used to seeing a lot of Patriot League, CAA, and MVC schools or start travelling with the team on the road.

CORRECT 509! That's why the A-10 instead of being a 3-bid league is, sadly, now the best 1-bid league.

Basketball Jones wrote:

this is how bad it is
and i believe part of this is OOC scheduling

I WISH THE OOC schedule was a driver because that would mean students and others are college basketball fans in general. They are not.

Everyone I take to a game LOVES the venue in terms of sight lines, ease of moving around and vibe when its closer to full. But, they'd sooner by a new car than purchase a ticket or even watch a game on TV.

What is going to get harder is attracting and keeping what we think of as A10 level talent as the NIL $$ snowball gets bigger. Logically with all the money the "adults" have been raking in I can't begrudge the players; however I'd be smart to focus on this year, bc the level of change year to year is sure to be jarring and may kill my fandom all together.

In my opinion, there are the major factors:

1. The damage done by the Lonergan departure and the resulting catastrophic decision to hire Mojo was real. It still impacts the program and won’t really be eradicated until we’ve danced a few times. Think those kinds of reputation hits can be easily fixed? Ask the good folks at  Anheuser Busch.  To me, this is the single most important reason TV pulled the trigger on JC so quickly. She saw the program floating further away from the island to the point of no return. We were very close to that point  in my view. Complete collapse of funding support, irrelevance and likely a move to a dipshit conference at some point. Yes, things were that bad and that close.

2. GW isn’t a sports school and never will be. We on this board are a good example. We are the most rabid amd loyal of the GW fan base, and we can barely scrape together a few dozen of us to regularly participate. It’s not in the culture of why you look at GW for school, unlike with programs like Dayton, Providence, Gonzaga, or even James Madison. Marketing does have some impact on this area, but it’s more cultural than anything else.

3. CC’s scheduling philosophy isn’t going to help. I don’t live in the area, but I do make a trip down for a game a few times a year. Let me assure you I dint pick Coppin State or UMES for this years campus visit.  I would imagine that’s the same for many season ticket holders.  These ticket packages are also so cheap, I doubt I would feel penalized by missing most of the load of crap OOC games.  His scheduling philosophy isn’t going to change, so get used to empty seats for the likes of next years comedy line up.

4.  If you build it, they will come. Winning brings attention, brings money, brings asses to seats. The bandwagoneers will be back when we win.

Without a longstanding tradition--let alone a recent winning one, the situation is very tough absent an NCAA run.  The situation is likely to only get worse with NIL and the transfer portal as players increasingly become less a part of the student body and more like transients.

Only half-jokingly, the best marketing answer I see--if not a humane one--is through gambling. 

- Give students free bets at MGM, DraftKings etc., just for showing up and staying in their seats. 
- Let them bet on every free throw and possession outcome, changing point spreads, and over/unders throughout the game.

What better way to get someone emotionally invested in GW basketball than giving them some of their own (or parents) skin in the game. 

While it's true that enticing a vulnerable student whose young brain is susceptible to addiction seems unethical, we're actually behind the curve in what corporate pro sports and the TV networks already know. Sure, busting brackets in the NCAA Tourney may be fun for longstanding fans, but did you notice that ratings for the tournament plummeted once people no longer had a shot in winning their office or online pool.           

If we're lucky, maybe some of these folks will actually like the game without money on the line.

Great points all around.  CC has done his part in recruiting the students, a few winning seasons that that side of the arena will be full with a couple of BBQs and other promotions. Paying customers have been much more difficult. As someone pointing out, the Lonergan fall out pissed a lot of people off. I personally know of about 10 season ticket holders and their families that gave up at that point and have not come back.

I think the customer segment that would be the best to focus on is alumni with young kids. I was always going to come to the games since I have been lucky enough to stay in the area after graduation for multiple decades, but I started bringing my kids when they were little along with the rest of my season ticket holder group and our number of tickets have multiplied over the years. Now our kids bring friends and they have a blast and we want to get even more. Just last week I had a friend reach out on how to buy season tickets because they have come to a few games and their kids love it.